MANILA, Philippines — Adamson turned what was expected to be a phone booth fight between two streaking teams into a one-sided affair, overpowering Far Eastern U, 95-79, to seize solo third in the UAAP Season 80 men’s basketball tourney at the MOA Arena last night.
The Falcons banked on a wide cast of heroes to dispose of the Tams and roll to their fourth consecutive win and 5-2 overall, in the process ending the three-game streak of FEU (4-3)
AdU coach Franz Pumaren heaved a sigh of relief after hurdling their third match in a seven-period stretch while staying within striking distance of leaders Ateneo (6-0) and La Salle (5-1).
“We survived the brutal week,” said Pumaren whose wards played University of the East last Sunday and University of the Philippines last Wednesday prior to FEU. “Credit to my coaching staff for scouting the opposing team and of course my players for playing with the same intensity since our first game during this week.”
Jerie Pingoy finished with 10 points and as many assists to backstop scoring leaders Jeric Ahanmisi and Jonathan Espeleta who had 17 apiece. Espeleta had six steals to banner the AdU defense while Ahanmisi accounted for three of the team’s 10 triples. Papi Sarr also came through with a 14-14 effort for Adamson, which led from start to finish.
Alvin Pasaol followed up his 49-point burst with 32 markers this time to enable University of the East to break through with a 96-91 victory over University of Santo Tomas in a battle of tournament doormats.
The Tigers, who were hurt by their 21 missed freethrows and 25 turnovers, suffered their first 0-7 record since the start of the Final Four era in 1993.
Three days after firing the league’s highest score since 2002 in a 100-106 loss to La Salle, Pasaol came out firing again and dropped 10 in the payoff period to help bail UE out of trouble in the face of UST’s fightback from 15-points down.
Pasaol also had 10 rebounds to make it a double-double for the victorious UE side that also gained from Philip Manalang’s career-high 20 with seven assists and Mark Olayon and Jason Varilla’s 15.
“The boys really played hard. We knew it’s not gonna be easy and UST is gonna bounce back so I’m really happy the boys responded. We didn’t fold up, we kept fighting and we weathered the storm of UST’s rally,” said UE mentor Derrick Pumaren.
UST caught up with UE at 85-all but Pasaol, Olayon, Varilla and Manalang conspired in an 11-6 counter to restore order for good.
Pasaol became the second player this season to score 30 points or more back-to-back. after La Salle’s Ben Mbala.